The Power of Big Data and Account Aggregation in the Digital Banking Revolution

Last week I bought some Stance socks on Amazon, and you know what showed up on my screen the next time I signed in?

Stance socks.

I made a serendipitous discovery through the recommendation above: Stance has a pair of socks with thick dark stripes, which is just what I was looking for. I bought a pair. From now on, Amazon will know that I buy Stance socks, and they’ll personalize my experience whether I sign in through smartphone, tablet, or desktop.

This experience hints at what it means to practice omnichannel banking. Everything is centered on the user, and everything is consistent across each access point at your financial institution. Omnichannel banking is about consistently engaging your users in personalized ways on every channel.

But this sparks a question: How does omnichannel banking help financial institutions increase wallet share? I mean, Amazon can potentially recommend hundreds of products per year, but financial institutions generally offer only a handful — and most users hold those few products at different institutions. Because of this, each institution's ability to recommend products is severely limited.

So how do you offset these limitations and make the most of omnichannel banking?

Part of the answer lies in being able to see your users’ full financial picture. After all, if the only thing that you know about a user is that they have a single auto loan with you, do you really know that user?

In order to see the full financial picture, you need to let users aggregate all their accounts — even those with other financial institutions. Once you let users aggregate accounts, you’re well on your way to establishing yourself as your users’ primary financial institution and winning wallet share. You can research why users in your area want mortgage loans with a national competitor. You can create targeted campaigns to counter your regional competitors’ loan rates, thereby increasing your volume of high quality loans.

Better yet, you can target specific demographics at every access point across your financial institution. Say that you created a campaign to target users with mortgages at a specific competitor. You could then:

Integrate your data with the software on your teller line and have tellers give specific users a brochure about refinancing with your institution

Integrate your data with your mailing campaign, so that only users who have a mortgage at a specific competitor receive the invitation to refinance

Integrate your data with your ATM machines, so these users will see the offer when they deposit money

To reiterate, here’s the formula we’re describing: First, build the ability to view your users' full financial picture. Second, integrate that data with your various channels so you can consistently engage your users in personalized ways at every access point. Once you’ve done those things, you’re sure to start driving up your volume of high-quality deposits and loans, which is the core of increasing wallet share.